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Usually,
he's talking about energy. One guy, McGrath tells the Tar Heels, can be the
catalyst to spark a team.

Most often,
during Atlantic Coast Conference play, that one guy has been James Michael
McAdoo. He did it again Saturday afternoon, making three early trips to the
free throw line and snagging three quick rebounds in the first four minutes on
the way to helping his Tar Heels to what eventually became an 18-4 lead over NC
State.

"We feed
off James Michael's energy," Marcus Paige said. "He was attacking early and
getting to the free throw line and it pumped everyone up."

It was
instructive to see McAdoo on the same floor with NC State's T.J. Warren, who
entered the game as the league's leading scorer and one of the top ten scorers
in the country. Warren is a terrific player. He's a player who, we can all
agree, is an almost certain first-team All-ACC selection.

The pair
were even matched up for part of the day, as McAdoo shared the defensive
responsibilities on Warren with J.P. Tokoto. Although Warren finished with 21
points, more than half of them came in the final eight minutes, when the Tar
Heels had already built a 22-point lead and the outcome was long since decided.
For most of the afternoon, Tokoto and McAdoo played him to a
standstill--literally, there were some possessions when Warren simply stood in
the corner and watched the action.

Contrast
that with McAdoo, who seems to have decided he's going to do something on every
single Carolina possession to make a difference. He had trouble converting on
Saturday, finishing 4-of-15, but his activity level around the rim was
ferocious. He finished with more offensive rebounds (6) than anyone who played
in the game, more defensive rebounds (7) than anyone who played in the game,
and double the free throw attempts (14) of anyone who played in the game.

If Warren
is a first-team All-ACC player through the first half of the league schedule--and,
again, it seems pretty obvious that he is--then what's McAdoo? You might know
that he ranks in the top 10 in the league in four different categories in ACC
games only. What you might not be quite as familiar with are his contributions
that don't appear on the stat sheet.

After every
game, the Tar Heel coaches break down the film and hand out awards in several
different categories. Going into Saturday, McAdoo had won or shared the
screening award in 14 of Carolina's 20 games. The coaches also give an award
for the best ratio of good plays to bad plays; McAdoo has won that award in
every ACC game that it's been awarded (there is no recipient if no one reaches
the threshold ratio).

He's also
becoming almost Zeller-esque in his ability to take charges, and he drew
another one Saturday when Tokoto forced Warren baseline and then McAdoo stepped
in front of him to draw the foul.

"He's been
a completely different player," said Marcus Paige. "He's raised his level of
play, not just in his scoring but in his efficiency. He's getting double-digit
rebounds, he's taking charges, he's active and talking on defense. He's taking
command of this team and when he plays like that, we're a really good team."

Just as
impressively, he's the kind of teammate you want to have on your team. After
the win over NC State, a reporter began a question to McAdoo about Kennedy
Meeks with the sentence, "For a while there, it seemed like Kennedy had hit the
wall..." and then went on to be fairly complimentary of Meeks. McAdoo's first
response: "I wouldn't say that." He wouldn't even let a throwaway comment about
a teammate hang there in the air without swatting it.

"He's been
so encouraging to everyone else," said one of his roommates, Luke Davis. "He's
stepped forward as a leader. He's texting guys, being encouraging, telling them
to get in the gym. If something goes wrong at practice, he's the first one to
say, 'Come on, let's get it together.'"

Carolina is
eight games into the ACC season. It's time to wonder if this isn't just a hot
streak for McAdoo, but a real step in the evolution of a college basketball
player. He's learning how to take the skills he has and impose them on the
game. He's also learning how to do some things that haven't always been
comfortable for him because those things are beneficial for the team.

Those improvements have made him a more consistent and productive player, but they've also made Carolina a much better and more complete team.